Cooking

> Maytawee

Arugula, Pear and Bacon Pizza with Honey Poppy Seed Sauce. I am so thankful it’s spring, but man did winter ever go out with a bang!

While the Northeast experienced abnormally warm weather, Arizona got snow! Meanwhile, the last day of winter here in Texas was a scary one for most! The day started beautifully, with bright sun and warm weather. I was especially excited for the light coming through my window which allowed me to photograph this spring inspired pizza. As the day went on, it became colder and the sky slowly turned black.
Pomegranate Orange Crush —juicy joy to help fight aging. Warm, breezy afternoons.

This means that I’ve been working out like a mad-woman, drinking gallons of unsweetened iced tea, and eating as light as I can between bites of Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream and Cookie Dough Brownies.
Deep Dish Fruit Pizza. My sister-in-law Missy first introduced me to the concept of fruit pizza years and years ago, and here’s how: she brought one to my house and I proceeded to eat the whole thing.

But it was small. And I was nursing. My mammary glands made me do it.
Mini Meatball Sandwiches. ***Saturday morning note: I’m bumping this recipe up to the top again because it wound up being my favorite from last week.

Yum!
*** Okay, fine. Taken from start to finish, this took a little longer than sixteen minutes.
Bacon Guacamole Grilled Cheese Sandwich. A guacamole grilled cheese sandwich has been on my to try list for a while now and since I was making the bacon guacamole on the weekend I figured I would just pick up double the ingredients and make both.

The basic idea behind this grilled cheese is quite simple and it started out with just adding guacamole to a grilled cheese but with the success of combining salty bacon-y magnificence with cool and creamy guacamole I could not resist adding a few slices of bacon to the sandwich. I also had some leftover corn tortilla chips from dipping on the weekend so I decided to crumble a few of them and add them to the sandwich for texture.

Like all grilled cheese sandwiches this one is pretty easy to make though you want to try to remember to pull the guacamole out of the fridge early so that it can come up to room temperature before adding it to the sandwich.
Lasagna Cupcakes. Those of you who have been reading this blog lately know that I have developed an alarmingly close relationship with my muffin pan.

I blame the French Toast muffins that I made a while back. They turned on a little lightbulb over my head, one that has led me down a road filled with cupcakes of all shapes and sizes. Ice Cream Cupcakes. Macaroni and Cheese Cupcakes.
Lemon bars. January is always the time of year when most of us get caught up in the winter produce doldrums, fueled by the dearth of flavorful fruit and the overabundance of hard, starchy vegetables.

But I find if I set my mind on citrus, I can carefully sidestep most bouts of Farmers Market Mourning. There are few things teeming with more promise of a sunnier tomorrow than sour-sweet piercing members of the rutaceae family, and I’ve got an archive full of margarita cookies, lemon bundts, orange chocolate chunks, grapefruit loaves and key lime tartlets that should assure you that you need not feel that you are missing out just because the peaches and berries have gone into hibernation. But I haven’t had a lemon bar in there before now, despite repeated requests and, heck, even pleading for one by various people inside my computer.
Bacon, Egg, and Toast Cups. Cheesecake in a Jar Recipe. I’m fairly certain that I’ve discussed my lack of love for the great outdoors, so it’s safe to say you’ll never hear me writing about long hikes in the woods or camping anywhere other than on a deck chair at a five star resort (Hey, I can dream, right?).

Not to say that I am not fond of the fresh air and scenery, I just like to keep a screen between me and the bugs. Needless to say, I don’t last long at picnics in the park or anywhere outdoors for that matter.
Sloppy Joes. I used to be terrified of sloppy joes.

It’s true. When I was a little girl, I got it in my head that sloppy joes were demons, and that if I ate them I’d become possessed and die. Okay, listen. I know that sounds crazy.
Peach shortbread. Is there an unsaid rule that bar cookies have to be heavy and gooey? Two weeks ago, we picked up a cup of coffee on our way to the park so that the little monkey could continue his path of destruction outside our apartment, and I fell for something in the bakery case called peach shortbread, cut into bars. But instead of being thick and intense, it was delicate, light and barely sweet — a thin layer of shortbread, even thinner slices of peach and the faintest sprinkling of streusel on top.

I knew I had to share it. And it wasn’t until I had jotted down “peach streusel bar” on my to-do list that I remembered a recipe for brown butter peach bars from that I found in a preview of The Big Sur Bakery Cookbook in The New York Times nearly three years ago, and have pined for since. (This recipe didn’t make it into the cookbook, but a rhubarb version — that looked almost as time-consuming and delicious — did.)
Homemade Cinnamon Bread. I baked cinnamon bread last night. I thought of it. I wanted it. So I baked it. And then, this morning…I ate it! I didn’t want to be rude.

Banana Banana Bread Recipe. Homemade Twix Bars. Intro If you don’t want gaggles of children beating down your door on Halloween night then look no further. If you’d rather not be the most popular house on the block then continue on your Internet search. If you aren’t a fan of a cookie crust so tender it shatters in your mouth, or a creamy caramel – dark, intense and scattered with salt, or bittersweet chocolate blended with butter to create the perfect cap to this cookie, then you might need to get checked because I think something is very wrong.

If you like the idea of all these things then you are in the right spot and you are here just in time as this is the perfect cookie for this candy-laden season.
Blueberry crumb bars. I uploaded pictures of this recipe yesterday onto Flickr, but didn’t get to telling you all about it because I was feeling a little lackadaisical after that whole seven days in a row of posting thing. Three hours later, I received this comment: “Omg, post the recipe already!” Hmmph! I thought.
Healthy Yogurt Breakfast Parfait with Blueberries & Granola Recipe. Here we go. The official holiday season is just starting and already our fridge and pantry is filled with fudge, zucchini bread and cookies. Add pumpkin pie to the mix and you have a recipe for disaster when it comes to healthy eating. So, how do you stop yourself from completely de-railing over the holidays?
Easy Breakfast Recipe: Banana Split with Yogurt and Jam Recipes from The Kitchn. » Homemade Muesli Recipe for breakfast in a jar Vintage Mixer.